Off the HookHow to stop doomscrolling.
Not with more willpower. With a feed that ends, a pause before the app opens, and less of it rather than none.
Doomscrolling is scrolling a feed long past the point of enjoying it, often through bad news or content that leaves you feeling worse. To stop, change the setup instead of relying on willpower: put a pause in front of the apps that pull you in, set your limits in advance, remove the parts of the feed that never end, and cut back rather than quit. In a six-week study, a short pause before an app opened cut actual openings by 57%.
"That thing we call doom scrolling would not exist without infinite scroll."
Why it's so hard to put down.
0places the feed tells you to stop
There's no bottom.
A newspaper ends. A TV episode ends. A feed that loads more as you reach the end removes the moment where you'd normally decide to stop, so the decision never comes.
24%more time on Instagram, said Meta
The feed learns you.
In October 2025, Mark Zuckerberg told investors that AI recommendations had driven a more than 24% increase in time spent on Instagram since Reels launched. Every swipe teaches the feed what keeps you there.
51%of US Instagram time is Reels (estimate)
It plays before you choose.
Autoplay and recommendations undermine people's sense of control, while search and playlists support it (Lukoff et al., 2021). By Sensor Tower's estimate, Reels took about half of US Instagram time in mid-2026.
Seven ways to stop, ranked by evidence.
Strongest first. Each one with what to do on an iPhone today, and what the research found.
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Put a pause in front of the app.
Make opening Instagram or TikTok take one deliberate step: a few seconds, a question, an easy way out. Most of the time you'll take the way out.
On iPhone: Shortcuts › Automation › App › choose the apps › "Is Opened" › add a short wait or a question. Apps like one sec do this for you.
Strong evidenceOpenings fell 57% over 6 weeks (280 people, PNAS 2023)
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Set your limits before you need them.
Decide your daily time on social apps while you're calm, not at 1 am. Self-set limits cut use substantially in a randomized study, and economists estimated that 31% of social media use comes from self-control problems.
On iPhone: Settings › Screen Time › Time Allowances on iOS 27, or App Limits on iOS 18 to 26. Limits can be ignored once reached unless a passcode blocks them, so ask someone else to choose it. How to make Screen Time stick.
Strong evidenceRandomized experiment (American Economic Review, 2022)
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Cut back. Don't quit.
Going cold turkey feels decisive, but it rarely lasts. People who used their phone one hour less a day were still using it about 45 minutes less four months later, and their gains were more stable than those who quit for a week.
Try: one hour less a day for a week, then keep the version of it you can live with.
Strong evidence619 people, three groups (Brailovskaia et al., 2022)
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Remove the endless parts. Keep the people.
Most doomscrolling happens in algorithmic feeds of strangers: Reels, Explore, For You. Messages from friends and posts from people you follow end on their own. Cutting the first while keeping the second is what makes it last.
On Instagram: tap the Instagram logo › Following to see only people you follow, newest first. It resets the next time you open the app. All the settings.
Some evidenceRecommendations reduce sense of control (CHI 2021)
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Get notifications three times a day.
Every notification is an invitation back in. Batching them three times a day improved attention, mood and sense of control in a randomized trial. Switching them off entirely made some people more anxious.
On iPhone: Settings › Notifications › Scheduled Summary. Pick three times, then add the social apps.
Some evidenceRandomized field trial, 237 people (2019)
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Charge the phone outside the bedroom.
Night is when doomscrolling is hardest to stop. In children and teens, bedtime device use, and even having a device in the room, is linked to worse sleep.
Try: a cheap alarm clock, and the charger in the hallway.
Some evidenceMeta-analysis, 20 studies (JAMA Pediatrics, 2016). Association, not cause
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Turn the screen grey.
A grayscale screen is less rewarding to look at. College students who switched used their phone about 38 minutes less a day, mostly less social media. Their mood didn't improve more than the control group's.
On iPhone: Settings › Accessibility › Display & Text Size › Color Filters › Grayscale. Add it to Accessibility Shortcut to switch with a triple-click.
Some evidence161 students, 8–10 days (2020)
What the evidence doesn't support
- A one-week detox. A 2025 review of complete breaks from social media (10 studies, 4,674 people) found no significant change in mood or life satisfaction.
- A reminder on its own. In the one sec experiments, a message asking you to reconsider did nothing by itself. The pause and the easy way out did the work.
- Trying harder. If a third of the time is self-control problems, the fix is to need less self-control.
We built the first four into one app.
A pause before the real appInstagram and TikTok stay locked. Opening them takes a break of 5 to 30 minutes, started inside Off the Hook. Then they lock again by themselves. Way 1
Limits you set while you're calmOn Medium and Hard, anything that loosens your plan only starts tomorrow. Way 2
Less, not nothingYour friends, DMs and stories stay. Reels, Explore and suggested posts don't. Ways 3 and 4
Questions
What is doomscrolling?
Doomscrolling is scrolling through feeds for a long time, usually past the point of enjoying it, often through bad news or content that leaves you feeling worse. Merriam-Webster traces the word to a 2018 tweet. It spread in 2020 and became a dictionary entry in 2023.
Is doomscrolling an addiction?
Not in a clinical sense. Neither DSM-5-TR nor ICD-11 lists social media or smartphone addiction; only gaming disorder is in ICD-11. Researchers call it problematic or compulsive use. It responds well to changing the environment rather than relying on willpower. More in phone addiction: what's real and what helps.
Why do I doomscroll at night?
At night you're tired, your self-control is lower and nothing else is competing for your attention. A feed with no end gives you no natural place to stop. Charging the phone outside the bedroom removes the choice.
How long does it take to break the habit?
In habit research, new behaviours took a median of 66 days to become automatic, with a wide range from 18 to 254 days. Expect about two months. A missed day didn't derail habit formation in the study, so don't treat one as failure.
Does deleting the app help?
It helps while it lasts, but studies of complete breaks find little lasting effect, and most people reinstall. Cutting back with friction and limits held up better. If you're weighing it, read before you delete Instagram.
Sources
- Grüning, Riedel & Lorenz-Spreen (2023). Directing smartphone use through the self-nudge app one sec. PNAS 120(8). PMC9974409
- Allcott, Gentzkow & Song (2022). Digital Addiction. American Economic Review 112(7). aeaweb.org
- Brailovskaia et al. (2022). Less smartphone, more well-being. Ruhr University Bochum. news.rub.de
- Lukoff et al. (2021). How the Design of YouTube Influences User Sense of Agency. CHI '21. par.nsf.gov
- Fitz, Kushlev et al. (2019). Batching smartphone notifications can improve well-being. Computers in Human Behavior 101. doi.org
- Carter et al. (2016). Bedtime media device use and sleep outcomes. JAMA Pediatrics 170(12). orca.cardiff.ac.uk
- Holte & Ferraro (2020). True colors: Grayscale setting reduces screen time in college students. The Social Science Journal.
- Lemahieu et al. (2025). The effects of social media abstinence. Scientific Reports 15:7581.
- Lally et al. (2010). How are habits formed. European Journal of Social Psychology 40(6). doi.org
- Aza Raskin on ReThinking with Adam Grant (2024). ted.com
- Meta Q3 2025 earnings call (Oct 29, 2025), reported by KTVU. Sensor Tower estimate of Reels' share of US Instagram time, Q2 2026, reported by PPC Land.
- Merriam-Webster, On 'Doomsurfing' and 'Doomscrolling'.
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